


Sickness

by Tinnevelly



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-02
Updated: 2014-05-02
Packaged: 2018-01-21 15:44:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1555616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tinnevelly/pseuds/Tinnevelly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael has to go to the hospital and learns how caring the robots really are.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sickness

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there! ^___^ 
> 
> Another little story since I am sick myself and staying in bed is boring. 
> 
> Disclaimer: Band to band, yadda, yadda, no money, yadda.

When he awoke, he immediately noticed that something wasn’t right. His bedding was completely soaked and he cracked his eyes open. Headache continued and drove him to close his eyes again as a ray of sunlight hit his face. Either he was hungry or he was sick but his stomach hurt. Every little gesture drove him to the brink of exhaustion and for a moment he wondered whether dying would feel like this.  
"Good morning, Michael." Matt stuck his head through the doorway and immediately furrowed his brow as he watched the scene before him.  
"Hey." His head roared though he had spoken softly.  
"Stay there, I'll get a doctor immediately!" And then the man disappeared from the room, leaving his friend alone in his sufferings. Heavy eyelids gave in and closed his eyes as Michael Reed sank back into the pillows.

"Good morning, Mr. Reed." A cold, hard hand was laid gently on his forehead as he slowly awoke from the fever dreams. He tried to see what robot crouched next to him but his gaze was too cloudy and his ears were too clogged to really recognize someone.  
He heard a soft giggle. "Here's The Spine. Don’t worry, the doctor is on his way. Your temperature is alarmingly high."  
Tired, he groped for The Spine and found his other hand after a while. He took it in his own hand and pressed it gently.  
"Yes, I'll stay here. We won’t leave you alone, Mr. Reed." The robot assured after understanding the gesture properly. The room spun and Michael felt like he would really die. He didn’t want to be alone now.  
"Yes, we all stay here." Another metal hand grabbed him and hit his shoulder. "Rabbit’s down waiting for the doctor." Then this had to be Hatchworth, right? His thoughts drove around aimlessly in his head and he found it hard to concentrate on anything or even thinking. He forced himself to smile but he did not really believed that it looked as soothing as it should act.  
"You need a drink." The Spine disappeared briefly from Michael's field of view and then came up with a glass of water. Hatchworth helped Michael gently to sit up. The glass shattered on the floor as The Spine preferred to let it fall to quickly grab the trash can. Michael didn’t understand anything around him but was very grateful for the bucket in front of him as he had to vomit.  
When he was finished and had wiped his mouth with a handkerchief, another glass of water was waiting for him. Shivering from the cold in the room, he reached for it again and found the metal hand upon his that helped him to keep the glass steady.  
"People are already incredibly weak." Judging by Hatchworth’s pitch, this was the very first moment that the robot experienced this fact himself.  
"He’s only sick, Hatchy. Come, make room for the doctor." Matt had stepped silently to the robots and shooed them away from Michael's bed. Reluctantly, they gave way but when the tall man in a white coat entered the room, everyone obeyed and gave way.

Under the watchful eyes of three robots Michael was examined. After initial anger over the curiosity of the robots, the doctor now explained the function of each device and how he thus sought to determine what made the human sick.  
"I can hear your heart!" Rabbit 's eyes widened and she marveled like a kid at Christmas when she held the stethoscope to Michael's chest. He smiled weakly. After vomiting he felt at least a little better.  
"May I hear it?" The Spine appeared to be ashamed of his curiosity but this type of medical examinations were always carried out away from the robots and they had to learn by themselves to understand it all.  
"Of course. Mr. Reed, please open your mouth and say out loud Aaaah."  
Michael did as he was told as The Spine used the stethoscope and then handed it to Hatchworth. The simple heartbeat of the human left the robots even more amazed because now they could hear it clearer and louder than ever before.  
Slowly, the doctor came to the end of his examination. He had taken blood, conducted a routine examination and looked at Michael now. Then he nodded and wrote some things on a piece of paper while Rabbit watched him curiously over his shoulder.  
"Until now, everything points to a heavy cold. Bed rest, plenty of fluids and use this medication. Then it should be over in a week. " The doctor finally said, handing the recipe to The Spine. Michael moaned with pain and started to protest as a pain shot through his stomach. Involuntarily he writhed under the pain and tried to get through it somehow.  
Immediately the doctor was with him and pushed his hands away from the belly. He gently patted his stomach and cursed.  
"We have to get him to the hospital immediately!" he commanded to the robots. The Spine nodded and left the room. Rabbit clinged to Hatchworth who slowly began to wail. "What’s wrong with him?" She asked anxiously. Her friend seemed to have incredible pain as he writhed still and wept.  
"It's his appendix. I haven’t examined it." The doctor admitted and injected Michael something. "I gave him painkillers so he doesn’t have to suffer much."  
The muscles of the human relaxed very slowly but his labored breathing and curvature remained the same. Hatchworth looked up to his brother, who now entered the room again .  
"Matt and Steve know everything, Matt will grab a few things for him. The ambulance should be here soon. Steve is waiting outside." Gently The Spine stroke Michael's cheek as he had seen it so often from the women of the Walter family when they had cared for a sick child.  
"I'll get him something!" Rabbit ran off and disappeared into the far reaches of the house.  
"May we go to the hospital? So he isn’t alone?" Hatchworth it didn’t seem to like the fact that his friend had to go alone to the creepy hospital.  
"You can certainly visit him there." The doctor reassured him with a smile as he apparently wrote a report to the next doctor.

Steve ran over the third red light as The Spine took the steering wheel over.  
"We go on foot." The human was about to protest but then the door opened beside him and Rabbit pulled him out of the car.  
"The Spine’s right. You humans are too emotional to drive the car."  
And so they came to the hospital an hour later.

The Spine stood in the waiting area of the station in front of the waiting.  
"The operation is still running. It’s an appendectomy. It will take hours until he is on station and wakes up."  
Steve punched against a vending machine out of frustration and growled something about how much he hated hospitals and doctors. Matt hung his head and sighed.  
"How is he?" Rabbit wanted to know from her brother.  
The Spine shook his head and didn’t want to answer. Only when Rabbit was on the verge to threaten him with a fight, he began to talk. "The nurse said that he was quite critical because the fever and inflammation are very severe."  
"So we don’t even know if he ever leaves this shitty operating room again?" Steve had jumped to his feet and seemed to be indecisive whom he first would have to threaten harm to help Michael .  
"Technically he will leave it no matter what." The Spine answered cautiously and earned himself a glare of both humans.  
"Are you the family of Michael Philip Reed?" Careful, a young woman pushed through the crowd.  
"Yes. Is there anything new?" Matt looked up from his shoes at her.  
"Have you fucked up?" The Spine grabbed Steve in a single motion and put him unceremoniously on one of the seats.  
The woman smiled a little. "The operation was complicated but it was successful. He has lost a lot of blood due to complications..."  
"I knew it! Your bunglers have killed him!" This time it was enough for The Spine and he pulled the man out of the room and closed the door behind him. Voices of both were loud and suddenly there was silence. The Spine returned.  
"Excuse our friend. He isn’t a fan of hospitals."  
"I see. Anyway, he’s in a very bad state now, but he will survive it. His body needs a lot of rest to find his strength again."

"A friend of mine died in this damned hospital. It was a fucking routine operation, they said." Steve defiantly wiped the tears from his cheeks and sobbed.  
Rabbit handed him a handkerchief. "Would you want to go home? The Spine and Hatchworth are staying here anyway. And Matt and you, you need rest." She offered kindly.  
"I will not leave before I haven’t seen Michael. Before I can’t see that he really lives!" Tears flowed again. Rabbit had seen and heard enough. She hugged him and hummed a tune that went through her head. The Spine had always done this when she was upset or had to cry. It had always helped her to calm down and with a smile she noticed that Steve relaxed slowly. He was still crying and so soaked her new dress but he returned the embrace and slowly he came to rest .  
"We’ll see him." Rabbit said with a broad smile and took Steve's hand.

The nurses had objected violently but in the end they had been powerless against the visitors.  
Matt was the first to respond. Carefully, as if he could break him, he stroked Michael's hand. The Spine inspected the machines and hoses that monitored Michael's sleep and in fact wrote down everything to show it later to Peter.  
Rabbit still had Steve's hand in her hand and put an arm around her friend's shoulder. This accepted the offer gladly and turned away from the scene. He now knew that Michael was alive, but to see his friend like that, it still didn’t make it easier.

The call had come in the early morning. Michael had woken up and was waiting impatiently for visiting.  
He lay still in bed and looked terrible. Deep dark circles and cracked lips adorned his face.  
"Don’t you get enough sleep?" Matt asked with a laugh as he looked at his friend like that.  
"If I don’t sleep, everything hurts. When I sleep, everything hurts. And I 'm not really hungry." After all, he had a single room a fact that Michael very welcomed.  
"Do you get any pain killers?" Surprised Michael looked around for Steve whose voice he had just heard. Rabbit looked a little bashful to the ground and then pulled out a small screen on which Steve could be seen. Michael smiled exhausted.  
"Yes, but not too much. They’re afraid that I will run through the hallways or something like that.”  
Steve laughed and also visitors really present smiled.  
"We have brought you some fresh clothes." Matt lifted the sports bag and then proceeded to put the clothes in the closet.  
"And really great other stuff!" Hatchworth put another bag on the bed. The robots gathered around it.  
"Fresh fruit for the vitamins!" Rabbit proudly presented the huge fruit basket and placed it on the table. Michael wondered when he ever could eat as much fruit.  
"I brought you some books from the archive. Robert wishes you well and get well soon." The Spine smiled as he pushed the basket a little to the side and placed a stack of books next to it.  
"These are first editions, so be careful!" It came from the screen. Michael snorted and stopped immediately due to his aching belly. A hyena head had been pushed next to Steve and now looked at Michael.  
"I will." He promised.  
"And get well soon. Someone needs to take this crazy dragon here on the leash. And the robots are driving me insane! And Matt, I should not even start on him! Do you know when he came to help me or me to scratch behind the ears the last time?"  
Matt turned the screen off and grinned. "Enough of that. Better wait for the other gifts."  
"Exactly! For we are not even finished!”

Michael was glad when he was finally able to leave the room. Colorful flowers, cards with wishes for his recovery and fruits were everywhere. He couldn’t bear it any more.  
But he had a gift he treasured. Safely hidden in the pocket of his robe, a picture Rabbit had painted for him. She had drawn him in the midst of his friends and had painted it with bright colors. His stick figure had a large scar on the abdomen. Chuckling, he thought of his own wound which would soon become a scar.  
"Whom have we here? Michael Reed gone astray?"  
Michael turned slowly and carefully to the voice and smiled as Steve stood before him. The tension was clearly written on the face of the technician and he had his hands in his pockets, where they were constantly moving.  
"It's nice weather. Will you bring me out?" Michael asked with a shy smile. He had heard that it wasn’t a long way to the park of the hospital and didn’t want his friend have to remain any longer in the hospital building.  
"What? We could’ve been able to meet out there? And you're telling me now? You are really stupid." With a grateful smile Steve took Michael’s hand and walked beside him to the outside.

Michael was amazed when he was picked up a few days later from the hospital. A black limousine was standing right in front of him and the driver already loaded the suitcases into the trunk. "I hope you have a good trip." The driver remarked even before he opened the back door for the sick. A familiar “face” greeted him.  
"I thought that a little trip would be good." Peter A. Walter VI eyed Michael attentive. "How are you, Michael?"  
"Been better. But at least I'm out of the hospital." Slowly it dawned on him why his boss had chosen the sedan and slipped grateful along the seat until he was on the bench.  
"A very good choice, huh? Would you rather go home? Or are you hungry?"  
Still, Michael was sick when he just thought about eating something, but the appetite for real food was huge.  
"I 'm hungry, sir." He admitted. Peter nodded and said something to the driver but Michael was no longer paying attention to because he had fallen asleep.

He woke up in the arms of The Spine who immediately looked down at him.  
"We didn’t want to wake you." In fact, Michael had not woken when the robot had brought him out of the limo and into the house.  
"I 'm hungry." He murmured tired. The Spine smiled.  
"Rabbit has already brought the cheeseburgers into the living room. There you can rest."  
Around the corner and Michael couldn’t believe it. The living room was fantastic furnished. The sofa now had even more cozy pillows and blankets. In front of it stood a table with food and drinks on it. Books, game controllers and even his laptop made the picture complete.  
"Welcome home, Michael!" Rabbit and Hatchworth were the first at his side and hugged him after The Spine had dropped him off. A small package was pressed into his hands.  
"Change and then we have a party!" Rabbit pushed Michael already out of the living room before he had even welcomed his remaining friends.

Later in the evening he lay snuggled between blankets and pillows in the living room and shook his head in disbelief. He had to admit that his new flannel pajamas were comfortable but the design wasn’t really his first choice. Chuckling, he stroked the little pandas eating bamboo. The cuddly toy of Hatchworth, of course a giraffe, was soft and smelled amazing after his favorite food. On the ground in front of the couch the archivist Robert had curled up and was snoring and lulled Michael to sleep. He would be better very soon if it stayed like this.

**Author's Note:**

> That's it. Hope you liked it. ^__^


End file.
